Barnes & Noble delays Nook e-reader by one week

Book retailer Barnes & Noble says it will delay the retail arrival of its Nook e-reader by one week due to high demand issues, according to a statement posted to the company’s Website Sunday night. The new date for the arrival of the Nook in Barnes & Noble stores is December 7.

The latest delay comes just over a week after Barnes & Noble announced that the Nook was out of stock for the holidays and those who ordered after November 20 will receive their device sometime around January 4.

Announced in October, the B&N Nook is among the most hyped e-book readers to target the dominance of Amazon’s Kindle. The Nook comes in at $259 and B&N says that high demand of the device has led to the current delays.

B&N told Reuters that it expects to stock a “very limited number” of Nooks in big stores on December 7, while those who preordered their Nooks before November 20 should receive them before the holidays. B&N had earlier hoped to have at least a limited number of Nooks in some stores on Monday, November 30.

The Nook has a few advantages over Amazon’s Kindle e-reader, such as a microSD slot, Wi-Fi to supplement 3G connectivity, and a secondary smaller multitouch color display used for control and navigation. On the downside, the Nook has a shorter battery life than the Kindle (ten days vs. 14 days).

However, e-book readers manufactures are secretive about numbers. B&N, Amazon, and Sony haven’t disclosed how many devices they manufactured or actually sold, but news of shortages like in the case of the Nook could signal that interest in electronic book readers is on the increase.